The OPM is using a method to calculate the postal portion of assets within the CSRS that is extremely unfavorable and unfair to the Postal Service
Inspector General asks, Are Emergency Suspensions of USPS Facilities Executed in Compliance with Policies and Procedures?
USPS OIG: Postal Service properties may be vacated due to events such as network optimization efforts, emergency suspensions, and/or staffing shortages. A decision to close or consolidate a Post Office (also known as a discontinuance) must be based on specific criteria, such as the effect on the community served and employees, compliance with government policy, and the economic savings to … Read More
Talk about Fake News: How a flawed Citigroup analysis led to Trump’s bogus tweets about Amazon and the Postal Service
BY STEVE HUTKINS President Trump is continuing his Twitter attack on Amazon over its deal with the Postal Service. Yesterday Trump tweeted, “Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon. THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country… … Read More
Looking back on the Amazon-USPS relationship on “Save the Post Office”
With all the news this week about the relationship between Amazon and the Postal Service, we thought it might be helpful to take a look back at the articles posted on “Save the Post Office” about the topic, most of them written by or with the help of former postmaster Mark Jamison. We were asking questions about the implications of … Read More
Post Office discontinuances and suspensions: A decade in review
The Postal Service and the Postal Regulatory Commission are currently working on the annual compliance review. The goal of the ACR, as stated in 39 U.S.C. §3652, is to determine if during the previous fiscal year the Postal Service has met all of the rate setting and service goals of the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. The review deals primarily with the issue of … Read More
How to rent a piece of history: JLL’s USPS Properties for Lease
Last summer Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) replaced CBRE as the Postal Service’s exclusive provider of real estate services. As stated on the USPS page on its website, JLL is “the transaction manager and exclusive broker for USPS’ 280 million-square-foot U.S. portfolio.” JLL is responsible for negotiating leases on 25,500 properties the Postal Service leases from private owners, brokering the sale of … Read More
The Postal Service gets a new real estate provider
The Postal Service has ended its contract with CBRE as the agency’s exclusive real estate provider. A few months ago, the Postal Service awarded a contract to a new broker, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). Los Angeles-based CBRE (aka CB Richard Ellis), the world’s largest commercial real estate firm, became the sole provider of real estate services for the Postal Service in … Read More
The Postal Service plans to end COD home delivery
The Postal Service is planning to end COD mail to home addresses. Under current policy, COD — officially “Collect on Delivery,” aka “cash on delivery” — can be delivered by the carrier to an address (COD per se) or it can be picked up by the customer at the post office, which is officially “Hold For Pick Up” (HFPU). The home delivery … Read More
The Postal Service test drives its new Service Performance Measurement system
Back in January 2015, the Postal Service proposed a major change in the way it measures on-time service performance for single-piece First Class Mail. Instead of contracting out to a third-party as it had done for many years, the Postal Service wanted to take advantage of the increased use of barcoding and do the measuring itself. The Postal Service began testing … Read More
Postal Service releases 2015 Household Diary Study
The Postal Service has released the Household Diary Study (HDS) Report for Fiscal Year 2015. The HDS measures the mail sent and received by U.S. households, tracks household mail trends, and compares mail use between different types of households. Among the Study’s findings: In 2015, U.S. households received 119.9 billion pieces of mail, and sent 10.5 billion. Mail sent or … Read More
Voting by mail and the next election meltdown
Votingbymail.com: Polls released this week indicate that the November presidential election could be very close, much closer than previously expected. In most elections, the margin of victory is large enough to avoid questions about how the votes were cast and counted, but when elections are close and contested, things like how the voting machines function and what constitutes a valid ballot can become … Read More
USPS-APWU arbitration decision puts moratorium on plant consolidations and outsourcing retail
he Postal Service and the American Postal Workers Union have a new contract. Last week, the arbitrator on the case, Stephen Goldberg, issued his decision and award, thus ending a two-year dispute. The new contract provides protections against layoffs for all career employees (who were on the rolls as of July 8), puts limits on more subcontracting, and converts many noncareer employees in maintenance and motor … Read More
How about a USPS stamp series celebrating Post Office murals?
The Postal Service possesses over a thousand murals produced by FDR’s New Deal during the Great Depression. The paintings celebrate American workers, local histories, and significant national events. The murals themselves should be celebrated with a new USPS stamp series. hile the volume of First Class single-piece mail has been steadily dropping (at about 3.6 percent annually for the past two years), good old-fashioned postage stamps are still … Read More